Group Warns School Cheating Exists Nationwide

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – If you think the scandal rocking Atlanta’s public school system is only happening there, a new study reveals it has occurred in in Missouri and Illinois too.

At least one test score cheating scandal has reportedly occurred in 37 states and the District of Columbia in just the past four years. That’s according to Bob Schaeffer with the National Center for Fair & Open Testing. He says the way the system is set up, it is not surprising that so much cheating is happening.

“Overuse of test scores as a sole factor to measure school and teacher quality has created a system in which there is so much pressure on educators to increase scores by hook or by crook,” he said.

Schaeffer cites the case of Herzog Elementary in St. Louis where several administrators were forced to step down after an audit last year revealed that teachers were being encouraged to coach kids on big tests.

“Across the river in East St. Louis there seems to have been a systematic pattern to discourage likely low scores, like special ed students, from enrolling in the schools because they will score low,” he said.

Now in Atlanta and elsewhere, he says, some of those crooks are being caught and punished but many more are out there.